Moist Noir

 I liked the look of Reminiscence (2021) in the previews, so I put it in the queue. I skipped the reviews, although I knew they didn't look good. 

It's set in the future, when global warming has raised sea level to the point where Miami is half-drowned, with water up to the second or third floor of the high-rises, and dikes keeping some of the rest dry - although still pretty moist. Huge Jackman is a memory specialist - he operates a machine that lets people relive memories of a happier, cooler past. He's a vet of the weather wars, like his assistant, Thandiwe Newton. One day, Rebecca Ferguson stops in for help in finding her car keys. Just like in Zero Effect. It turns out that she's a nightclub chantoozy, and he goes to check out her act. Eventually, they fall in love. And then she disappears.

Jackman starts compulsively watching memories of their time together over and over, which can lead to burnout. When scanning the memories of a suspect for the police (the only paying job he's had recently, and Newton forced him to take it), he gets a clue to Ferguson's past with a New Orleans drug lord. So the chase is on. 

In parallel, there's the story of  a local land baron, a member of the over-caste who own all the dry land. That's the Chinatown bit. It's quite involved, as is the Ferguson mystery. And they do come together in the end.

But that wasn't why we enjoyed this. It was for the drowned cities, the deco lobbies, the steam punk memory machines, the neo-noir atmosphere. The art directors really knew what they were making.

There was also one scene that really worked, although it was pretty improbable. It's a big SPOILER, so skip this if you care. When Jackman is scanning the memories of a bad guy, he finds that he was holding Ferguson. She starts telling the bad guy how much she loves him, and how she hopes he gets to see this - and Jackman realizes that she is hoping he will see this memory, and know it was meant for him. I wonder if she had to give this monologue to a lot of bad guys, for insurance? Anyway, it's actually very sweet. 

Look, this isn't Blade Runner, or Chinatown, or Blade Runner meets Chinatown meets Inception, although it's got a little of all those, along with Casablanca, and a lot more. But as a top-grade B-movie SF noir, it was great.